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17.52 Spanish striker Fernando Torres has been speaking about Spain's upcoming quarter final match against France.

France are a great side who perhaps didn't have their finest day (against Sweden). We hope that against us they won't return to their best form, but if they do so we will be ready. These days, Spain, at its best, is very hard to beat

17.49 SoHungarian official Viktor Kassai has become a Facebook sensation after failing to give Ukraine a goal againet England. A Kassai "dislike" page has had 32,000 "likes". More proof that Facebook should introduce a 'dislike' button then

17.30 An e-mail from reader Tom Collins

Not sure Thom Gibbs realised what those Czech Republic fans on the train had on their faces, before he put that picture up.

Hate to break it to you Tom but I think he did realise...

17.25 Apparently Funtik is daily given two bowls to eat from, each marked by the national flag of two teams playing each other. Those who believe his psychic powers say the bowl he eats from first will prove to be the winner on the night.

17.20 This just in, a topless protest by Ukraine's Femen women's rights group has livened up feeding time for Ukraine's Euro 2012 psychic pig, Funtik, as fans waited to see who he would choose to win today's quarter-final.

16.55 This story is a little dated but a Polish restaurant in Krakow has set a Guinness World Record for cooking the biggest ever lasagne in honour of the Italy football team staying nearby.

16.50 This photo is classic. Cristiano Ronaldo seemingly going through ‘hair And makeup’. That explains his good skin tone and long lashes....

16.32 The Portuguese squad were in top spirits after their win against Holland. Some excellent lads on tour sing-song action on board their coach and aeroplane:

16.24 You'll be delighted to learn that Portugal have provided their requisite frightening fan for the evening:

16.15Here is Stefana the cow predicting the results of tonight's match

15.55 This video is doing the rounds on YouTube. Not exactly sure why people are watching it now but it will make you laugh. With lyrics like 'You'll never beat the Irish' it really is a cracker. But at least they had an official song. What do England have?

15.50 Football is really hard, there just isn't enough time for relaxation. So all hail Balotelli. That man knows how to live.

15.45 One of our readers, Tom Amos has just e-mailed in an interesting perspective on penalties and probability

A lot of people put England’s perceived poor performance in penalty shoot outs down to a) lack of nerve, b) lack of preparation or c) being unlucky, when it’s all down to probability. Unless the player kicks the ball into row Z (which can be put down to lack of skill) the player has either to go left, centre or right.This means that the goalkeeper has a 1 in 3 chance of guessing correctly every time a spot kick is taken.

15.40 But this is interesting, if a little barmy.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Gary Lineker - Both the BBC and ITV will show the final live. One of the few occasions that you can show your preference. A sort of telly election&lt;/noframe&gt;

15:35 Gary Lineker has tweeted some insight into the TV listings for anyone interested. No?

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Gary Lineker - For those confused by TV listings, the divvy up of matches was only done after England game. BBC had first choice of QF, ITV 2nd and 3rd&lt;/noframe&gt;

15.25Joe Hart has also rubbished suggestions that it is already 'mission accomplished' for England. Apparently it was all part of the cunning plan to take Euro 2012 by storm. Ahh yes that plan. Good thing England fans were kept in the dark then...

There have been a group of people who thought we'd not do well. But I think for anyone who knew the players and knew our mentality and what we came here to do then it's not a surprise. It's part of the plan. It's obviously a great achievement, but something that we set out to do at the start of the tournament.

15.15Now to Twitter, where this odd, and not at all verified story has just appeared:

15.00 Joe Hart was asked earlier today about his team-mate and for this weekend opponent Mario Balotelli. His answer began with a Geoff Capes strong contender for understatement of the week

He's quite an extravagant guy. I think Mario accepts, with the way he is, that sometimes he's going to bring attention to himself. But he has got broad shoulders and whatever's written about him will not affect him and I know that, I know that personally. People can keep writing. He wasn't bothered that things were made up about him because he lets things just kind of slide off."

14.40 Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti believes Mario Balotelli is just fine the way he is and shouldn't go changing...

I am always ready to forgive everything. I have an idea of what he (Balotelli) is like because I know Mario since he was a boy. He has a wonderful family, who adore him and protect him and he repays that affection. But there is something in him that makes him distrustful of everyone, even those that appreciate him, as is the case of (Italy coach Cesare) Prandelli, who called him up to the national team."

14.25 The Czech Republic fans are arriving in Warsaw. On trains, it would appear:

14.19 Large-scale storms have been forecast in Warsaw tonight, which means the roof will be closed for the Czech Republic v Portugal match. How will this affect the game? Probably not at all. But everyone involved can expect to feel sweatier than they'd like to by the end.

14.15 Gary Neville has found it tough to keep a lid on his manly emotions since his appointment as Ingerland coach:

I was quite passionate on the pitch, but on the bench, I can't control myself. It's good to have someone calming next to me, because I'm bobbing up and down like a cork really. [Roy Hodgson] is calm, doesn't get carried away by things, brings a great deal of humility, trusts in his players and has faith in them and I think they are recognising that he is someone they like and want to play for. I think that's important and one thing about the group in this last three, four weeks, the work rate, the endeavour, the effort has been absolutely incredible. Even for me having played with quite a few of them, to see it from the other side is inspiring really.

The Neviller has also warned England to keep an especially close eye on that Mario Balotelli during Sunday's quarter final:

Joleon will know him better than we do, that's the great thing. There will be no surprise for Joleon on Sunday and the same for John Terry who'll have played against him as well, so that's a good thing. But obviously knowing and playing against him means that there will be that added extra spice that Balotelli himself will want to put one over on England. He plays in the country, he's a big figure in England with respect to the media he gets and he's a champion of England now with Manchester City and he will be very difficult to play against.

14.05 Thom Gibbs here, seizing control for a brief period. How are your excitement levels for Czechs v Portugal this evening? Probably the least interesting of the four quarter finals, but should prove an entertainingly close game. Which Ronaldo will show up? Genius Holland game Ronaldo, or ineffective weeping Ronaldo?

13.55L'Equipe, France's leading sports newspaper, laid things bare this morning after France's 2-0 defeat to Sweden on Tuesday and the reported "shouting match" in the dressing room. It began, reportedly, with an exchange between Alou Diarra and Samir Nasri, who was stung by his team-mate's complaint that he had not received enough defensive support in midfield.

Things then allegedly escalated when Laurent Blanc scolded Hatem Ben Arfa for talking on his mobile phone. "Send me home if you're not happy with me!" Ben Arfa was reported to have said. Anyway, it's not a bean on France's shenanigans during the last World Cup and the Anelka-Domenech tirade.

13.30 Germany coach Joachim Loew has said he will watch his language during Friday's Euro 2012 quarter-final with Greece after learning a deaf German lip-reader is tweeting his potty-mouthed pitch-side comments.

I have said some pretty hefty expletives, I have to admit that. So I will probably have to beware of that a little bit more in the future," said Loew after learning about football-fan Julia Probst.

"We're more organised than ever," he said. "The lads have all been fighting for each other, we want to do this together, so I think we've got a great chance. We feel good, we've prepared well and we're really looking forward to it.

"It's important that we believe in ourselves. We've got a great group of players and we're confident.

"It's not going to be an easy game, but we've got the players, we've got the belief and the togetherness to do a job on them. Once you get to this stage of the competition anything can happen."

I am not sure that "more organised than previous England sides" is exactly the highest praise. I've seen packs of wild dogs that are more organised that some previous England sides. I actually haven't seen that many packs of wild dogs, so maybe my comparison is not valid.

13.00 There are some really nice pictures in this heregallery, including the storm before Ukraine v France. Check it out.

12.35 Shame. Poor old Greece. This is a bit harsh. Press release follows.

"Germany are 66/1 with Ladbrokes to knock Greece out of both Euros in 24 hours and it's 100/1 a Germany player or member of staff is spotted on camera taunting the Greeks with money."

"Chancellor Merkel will be in attendance and she's odds-on at 4/5 to be shown by ITV cameras 1-3 times while it's expected at just even money that German fans will share their thoughts on the Greek economic situation via a banner or sign inside the stadium.

"It's 12/1 that Greek austerity sets in on the pitch as well and they don't register an attempt on goal while a last minute bailout (Greece to be behind at 80 minutes but win the match) is 50/1. The Greeks are 9/1 outsiders to win the match while they face an equally stiff task in terms of qualification at 7/2."

You would imagine - and certainly hope - that "taunting them with money" will not be on the agenda.

Henry Winter's best moment? "Welbeck’s elegant, athletic finish against Sweden, a reminder of his ability to improvise and the hard work he put in at Manchester United’s Academy developing such technique under skills coach Rene Meulensteen.

Paul Hayward's best performance? "Cristiano Ronaldo against Holland. With the weight of the nation on his back again, and some ludicrous negativity in the media, he ripped the Dutch apart."

Jason Burt says: "Sign up..." France’s Mathieu Debuchy. He has a release clause of just 8m euros in his club contract at Lille and would be ideal for Chelsea to solve their perennially problematic right-back position.

12.10 Penalties. Chance for redemption? Or a new generation of misery?

Tom Amos writes: "I fancy our chances in a shoot-out with Hart in goal. I hope we beat to Italy so we get to play Germany in the semi final with a 8-1-1 formation, with Carroll up front, Terry hanging on at the back and then beat them on penalties. I want to see their glum Teutonic faces burst into tears; especially Mario Gomez who looks like George McFly from Back to the Future."

12.00"What have we learned so far?" asks Thom Gibbs. He means from the Euros, not life in general. Neither Thom nor I have learned anything at all from life in general, if you don't count sports trivia, pop trivia and, in my case, recipes.

11.52 So there you have it. Portugal: will play with a lot of lust. Ladies, calm yourselves.

11.50 Back to Jim White, who concludes his preview by turning to the Portugal side.

Lacking stars is not an accusation anyone could level at the Portuguese. Indeed many have characterised this game as Bilec’s team spirit against one man: Cristiano Ronaldo. Not that the Portuguese accept such an interpretation.

“Well it’s natural there’s a lot of talk about the best player in the world,” said the midfielder Joao Moutinho, who claimed he would rather have Ronaldo in his team than Lionel Messi. “He is here to help us. Ronaldo is a leader and he is continuing his work to do everything for the team.”

Ronaldo’s extraordinary form in the group stages has certainly injected confidence into a Portugal team expected to be at full strength for the encounter. So much confidence, indeed, they appear to have a very different take on history to their opponents.

“We hope to repeat a Euro game too, but not 1996,” said their coach Paolo Bento, whose permanent scowl was not lifted despite being serenaded by the Portuguese press corps with Happy Birthday yesterday. “We prefer to remember 2008 when we beat the Czechs in the group game.”

He then added a line that gained an unintended dimension through the interpretation of the Uefa official translating channel.

“We will play as we always do,” he said, “With will, organisation and a lot of lust.”

It would help Bilec enormously if his playmaker Tomas Rosicky is fit. The Arsenal player has been suffering from an Achilles problem, but insisted that, despite returning to Prague earlier this week for specialist treatment on the injury, he would be under consideration for a start in the game at the National Stadium in Warsaw.

“I have trained. We will decide based on reaction of my heel,” said Rosicky who, like all the Czech players, is eschewing the razor until his team have been eliminated. “The reason I went to Prague was nothing special. We didn’t have the necessary equipment in Poland, that is all. As for the beard, I hope we will get uglier as the week goes on.”

Bilec added that if Rosicky was ruled out of the game, his team would adapt to his absence, as they did against Poland in their crucial group game.

“We don’t have stars, beyond perhaps [Petr] Cech and Rosicky,” he said. “If we defeat Portugal it will be down to the team, as always.”

11.30 Here's a few of your reactions to Jamie Carragher's claim that England are too nice, and that we should learn from other sneakier international teams.

Glen says: "I dont agree, it's true other countries are more learned in the dark arts than England (Ashley Young excluded) but it makes their victories all the more hollow (however much they revel in it). If it's a choice between succeeding this way or not succeeding, i'd choose the latter. It's not gamesmanship or being canny. It's cheating. Play hard, play fair, try damn hard to win, let the ref make the decisions, keep your integrity."

Nick in France writes: "Personally, I think the authorities could deal with this stuff easily - if they'd stop holding onto this pedantic obsolete obsession of trying to make the Referee god. In the age of multi-camera HD slo-mo replays, this is a nonsense - and actually undermines referees by exposing their inevitable mistakes so cruelly. (On the whole, I think refs do a superb job, by the way, making decisions in real time from not always the best angle). Use video evidence for christ sake - we all do it anyway, in effect, so just make it official."

Jim Liverpool says: "Look at every centre half who has won something in the Prem for two decades and see how they behave. Terry is one of the most skilled offenders. Carra knows the score. Pulling shirts and rolling players off the ball are chances you take and if you get away with it then so be it. If you get a card, you take one for the team. That's all he is saying so let's not shy away from it. We know they dont like it up 'em, Mr Mannering, do we not?"

11.10 Jim White has more from the Czech Republic camp ahead of tonight's match with Portugal.

"Remember the heady days of Euro 96? Shearer, Sheringham and Football’s Coming Home? The Czech Republic certainly does. Though unlike the hosts, for them the tournament did not end at the semi-final stage; they made it all the way to the Wembley final, only to be defeated by Germany in extra time.

And on the way, they knocked out a highly fancied “golden generation” Portugal team in the quarter final. They did so through a magnificent scoop chip by Karel Poborsky, a goal of such impudence it convinced Alex Ferguson to fork out substantial funds for the player, thus proving at the stroke of a pen on a contract that one strike does not make a striker.

Michal Bilec, the Czech coach, reckons the memory of that tournament will carry his team through tonight’s coincidental quarter final against a much-fancied Portugal.

“Of course we remember this match, the lob of Poborsky,” said Bilec. “We wouldn’t be angry if we repeated history.”

11.00 Mark Ogden reports: "Polish TV showing re-runs of Karel Poborsky's lob-goal for Czech Republic against Portugal in Euro 96 quarter-final at Villa Park. Will history repeat itself tonight with Manchester United once again signing the winning goalscorer on the back of his performance? They still have most of the £80m Cristiano Ronaldo windfall in the Old Trafford coffers, so if he scores the winner..."

10.50 This is splendid. I love a giant food story.

"A Polish restaurant in Krakow has set a Guinness World Record for cooking the biggest ever lasagne in honour of the Italy soccer team staying nearby.

The lasagne weighed in at more than 4.8 tonnes and took 10 hours to bake before being sliced into 10,000 portions.

Said chef Giancarlo Russo: 'I don't know if the players can have the lasagne because they are on a diet, but they can try just a little bit.'"

Mario desperately tried to cling on as he was lowered into the giant lasagna

"Uefa put tickets returned by eliminated national associations on direct sale. Tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis on its tickets website and must be collected by the purchaser."

Uefa says that ticket availability does not mean that they have had a hard time selling the tickets, oh no no no nothing could be further from the truth.

Kevin Miles of the Football Supporters Federation said: "About 5,000 England supporters are expected to be at the game. The main reason numbers are down on previous tournaments is simply the cost. Money is tight and recession is biting, but we expected there will be a lot of support in the stadium from the locals. Even though we beat them, there is a lot of warmth towards the English game."

It's estimated that Italy will have even less fans than that. The Olympic Stadium holds 60,000.

10.35 The Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has got some team selection tips for Cesare Prandelli. In a nutshell?Play Mario.

"Balotelli is the strongest striker of Italy and he has to play. No one else could give England the same problem. Prandelli is doing a terrific work but he has to rely on Mario. He is too important and you could not leave him on the bench."

10.25 And what news of England's Rose?

Here's Hodgson: “In training Wayne Rooney looks terrific but there’s always that little difference between training performances and then having to go out in an important match where there’s big pressure from everybody, not least of all him. His comeback has been greeted by everybody with great expectation and we are all pleased to see him back."

10.10 I love this story, relayed by Paul Hayward, about the mentality in the Italian camp.

"Cesare Prandelli, the Italy coach, led his assistants on a 15-mile hike at 3am to a local monastery to fulfil a promise he had made to his players.

Prandelli had said he would walk to the home of Camaldolese monks if his team made it past the group stage. Goaded over dinner to honour that vow, the group took three and a half hours to cover the ground and returned by car at 7am. And they say Balotelli is the eccentric."

10.05 Some interesting quotes out of the Italian camp from their midfield maestro Daniele De Rossi. He is of the opinion that Mario Balotelli needs to grow up. Specifically, he must not react to wind-ups from the England players.

"We’ve talked a lot about Balotelli. He’s a great player, so if he wants to grow, he has to know how to react to this situation. “He can be more or less happy. Those who don’t play sometimes cannot be happy. But I’ve seen him very calm. We are here to win Euro 2012. So, everybody has to take his own responsibility. Everybody is treated in the same way.”

09.55 Never mind all chat about the actual football. Let's turn our attention to the really important business of an international tournament: yelling obscenities at your TV screen when the pundits come on at half-time. Thom Gibbs has painstakingly compiled the definitive dossier on the talking heads of BBC and ITV, and if you want to see our Euro 2012 Pundit League Table then you should step right this way.

09.45 Jamie Carraghergives an excellent insight into the England player's view on Italy.

"When you play an Italian side, you know you’re in for the ultimate test of your mentality and professionalism.

They stretch the boundaries to the absolute limit. The England players will feel every tug of the shirt, every Italian boot on their shin and will see opposing players trying to get them booked or sent off.

The sensitive among us will say this isn’t what sport is about. I say don’t be so naive. What you have to ask yourself as a player and supporter is how much do you want to win? I’m not talking about blatant cheating. That’s a completely different issue. I’m talking about playing on the absolute limit for 90 minutes and doing everything to ensure the result goes your way.

I'm not convinced the England national team have always followed this mantra. Some of our club teams have, but as a nation we seem to favour an idea of being ‘gentlemanly’ when we play, as if it’s possible to win without adopting some of the more cynical tactics of the game. I’m telling you now, you either get on board with how the rest of the world approaches a game or you go home."

09.35 This just in from our omens and auguring department. The smell of pigeon entrails is overpowering at this time of a morning, but the message is an encouraging one.

"Roy Hodgson took Fulham to the Europa League final where they knocked out Ukrainians in Donetsk. Beat Italians in the next round, defeated Germans in the semi finals and lost to a Spanish team in the final."

"But something has also changed in Gerrard recently – perhaps fired by Stuart Pearce’s decision to overlook him as captain against Holland in the friendly following Capello’s departure when Scott Parker was selected. Maybe Pearce felt it was time for a clean break. But the player himself was upset and angry and has since voiced that hurt while embracing the decision of Hodgson to appoint him. He knows time is running out."

09.15 Let's have a brief tour of the Telegraph estates and see what the great and the good of this newspaper are saying about the Euros. Here'sJim White on additional assistant deputy reserve linespersons.

"Yet before we do something dangerous like agreeing with Blatter and insisting on the installation of cameras in the frame of every goal, it should be pointed out that standing within a couple of yards of Devic’s effort, directly level, his feet straddling the goal line, was what is termed by Uefa an “additional assistant referee”.

He was stationed there for moments like this, poised and ready to relay his opinion on what had happened to Viktor Kassai, the man in the middle. A job he singularly failed to do."

09.10 As for England's opponents, Italy's training focused heavily on keeping Mario out of trouble. Here, the striker has been given a flag to play with.

Sadly, it only worked for so long, before Mario attempted to hide the goals.

09.00 I hate to rain on your parade first thing on this rainy morning, but we need to talk about something rather serious. England. Penalties. All right-thinking people naturally assumed we would be home and post-morteming before the actual knockout phase, but Roy's boys have only been and qualfied out of their group. And that, surely, means a shootout at some point.

“We have used the time after training sessions to regularly practise. We’ll obviously take it even more seriously now. But you can practise penalty shoot-outs until the cows come home. It’s really your composure, confidence, ability to block everything out and forget the occasion that means you score or you don’t score. Sometimes we’ve seen the best players miss and the best players you think are not penalty-takers are the ones that smash them in.”